Craft Projects
by FollowGibbs'Rules
Summary: The team finds a whole grove of trees with little bullet holes in them and a dead marine with the same. As the team tries to figure out if this death is a murder or accident, Tony struggles to take care of Kate.
1. Chapter 1

**This is the sequel/tag to my story Personal Layers. I suggest you read it first to understand a little bit more about Kate and who she is.**

**The chapters will come up quickly, one probably each day. Your welcome if you can keep up, if not, I'm sorry, but you will. :)**

**Please R&R!**

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Chapter 1-

Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo stepped out a steel elevator into a bright orange room with a large sky light. He headed to a section of the room where two other people sat at desks in the corner. Tony grumbled to himself as he sat down on the bottom right corner desk after putting his coat and bag on the ground. He was wearing a long sleeved maroon dress shirt rolled up to the elbows and faded jeans.

Timothy McGee, sitting in a desk on the top right corner of the sectioned off area, looked over at Tony when he heard the grumbling. Cocking his eyebrow, he stopped what he was doing and looked at Tony then over at Ziva David, who was sitting in the bottom left corner desk, also noticing Tony's unusual behavior.

Ziva spoke up first, "You haven't worn a suit in quite a while, Tony." She pointed out. "Did Kate do something to them?"

"No, Kate didn't do anything to them. They are absolutely fine; I just don't feel like wearing them much anymore. Besides, Kate isn't around enough to do anything to them." Tony replied bitterly.

"Is she coming over here this afternoon?" David asked.

"No again Ziva, she has detention."

McGee finally said something. "For what?"

"I don't frickin' know! She's in trouble for everything lately! Every day she has detention or I'm getting a phone call. I swear, the school has me on speed dial now!" DiNozzo took a deep breath, propped his elbows up on his desk, and rested his face in his hands. He was starting to grumble again, despite his co-workers laughs, when his phone rang.

Almost as soon as he picked it up, a woman's voice came in from the other side. _"Mr. DiNozzo?"_

Tony suppressed a groan and listened to her as she talked. Soon, he hung up and stood up, grabbing his stuff. "Be back in thirty minutes; gotta run an errand." He jogged over to the elevator and was gone seconds later.

Ten minutes later, Tony parked his car in front of Kate's high school. He shut the door with a slam and walked inside, immediately into the office. He cast a glance at Kate, who was sitting in a chair by the door, and walked over slowly.

Kate smiled weakly. "Hey Tony. What are ya doin' here?" She asked.

Tony opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by someone calling him over. He shut his mouth, shook his head a little and walked away.

The girl sighed and sat in the chair, waiting for the talk to be over.

A few minutes later DiNozzo came back out and headed for the door. The look on his face showed that he was clearly beyond annoyed. "Let's go." He grumbled to Kate as he walked by.

She immediately got up and followed him. "What'd they say?"

"That you're suspended for the rest of the week."

"But it's Monday morning!"

"Exactly, hope you never get sick of your dogs."

"Can't I go to work with you?" Kate whined.

"No! Not after you punched someone." Tony rolled his eyes and headed out of the school to his car.

"It wasn't _my_ fault…" She muttered. "He kept talking about how my mom was arrested and that I live on the streets and no one wanted me near them."

"Well you do have a home, for now. Why didn't you just say you live with me?" He asked, turning to look at her.

"Because, saying I live with the agent on the case? Please! Sounds like I'm under surveillance, or with Social Services." Kate frowned.

Tony gritted his teeth. "Get in the car." He growled as his phone started going off.

Picking it up, he heard Ziva's voice. "Tony, we got a dead marine lieutenant at Shenandoah Park. Gibbs is looking like he is in a bad mood so you might want to get over here soon."

"Alright, I'll be right there." DiNozzo hung up and sat in the car.

~~~~Shenandoah Park~~~~

Tony again parked his car by the street. "Stay in the car, no matter what." He ordered Kate and got out. After grabbing his stuff, the agent jogged over to where his team stood around the body of a dead marine.

"DiNozzo, where the h*ll have you been?" Gibbs barked at him.

"Sorry Boss…had to deal with Kate." He motioned back in the direction of his car.

"She is here? What happened?" Ziva asked.

Tony started to explain when both of them got a hard slap to the back of the head from Gibbs. They both shut up as the team leader gave out orders.

"McGee, witness statements." He pointed to a far bench where a couple sat. "David, bag and tag. DiNozzo, photos." The whole team got to work while Gibbs stood there, wondering where the medical examiner was.

After a few minutes, Tony's phone started going off. After a quick glare from Gibbs, he answered it. "What?" He whispered.

The voice on the other side of the line was Kate's. "Hey Tony…can you come here?"

"Why?" DiNozzo hissed into the phone but still started walking back to his car. "What did you do now?" He called out to her when he was close enough.

Kate narrowed her eyes and opened the door. "Look over there. At the trees…" She nodded to a grove of pine trees on the other side of the park. Several of them had small holes in them, each about the size of a bullet hole.

Tony's jaw dropped slightly at the sight of the trees. "Uhh…I'll call Gibbs." He spoke out, mostly talking to himself though.


	2. Chapter 2

**This chapter is seriously short, it's rediculous. The other chapters will definetely be more like chapter 1, if I can help it.**

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Chapter 2-

Two glass doors framed in cold steel opened up to let Special Agent Gibbs walk through to a steel room. In the room, on a cold steel slab laid a dead, middle-aged man and an elder man in blue scrubs starting to cut a 'v' shape into his upper chest.

Gibbs walked over to the body and man. "You got anything for me yet, Duck?" He asked.

"Oh, yes I do, Jethro." 'Duck' put down the scalpel in his hand and pointed to a bullet hole in the mid-area of the chest. "It was a through and through shot. The bullet went through the back, shattered several vertebrates along the spinal cord, and through the sternum." He used his finger to demonstrate the bullet's direction by shooting it upward to the ceiling. Doctor Mallard walked over to where he put his x-rays and turned on the backlights. "The x-rays show the splintered bone. Death would have been quick, not at all painful.

The special agent just nodded slowly as the elderly man talked, and looked over the body, inspecting it. "No defensive wounds." He noted as he looked at the hands.

The medical examiner nodded. "Yes, the knuckles are unscathed. Perhaps indicating that he knew his shooter…?" It was more of a question than a statement.

"He was shot from behind, Duck. He didn't have a chance to turn and fight."

"Very well. I did find a gooey like substance around the bullet hole that I sent up to Abigail for analysis." Ducky said. "If I find more, I'll get you."

Gibbs nodded. "Thanks Duck." He walked out of autopsy and into the elevators where he made his way up one floor to the forensics lab.

The MCRT leader stepped into the three-sectioned forensics and ballistics lab. At the desk in the first section was a woman with knee high Demonia boots with black lacing running the rest of the way up her legs. She had a short plaid skirt that went down mid-thigh and had on a plain black tee. Though, the white lab coat she had on covered all of that and went down to the knees. She had on a studded dog collar, per usual, and her hair was in ponytails beside her bangs. She was typing away at her keyboard. Suddenly, the forensic scientist turned around to see Gibbs in the doorway. "Gibbs!" She called excitedly.

"Hey Abby." He walked over to her. "Whatcha got?"

"Nothing yet." She said and continued when he gave her a small glare. "I only got the evidence a few minutes ago! Including Ducky's bullet hole substance." Abby declared defensively then started talking fast. "I heard Kate was here. Where is she? Why is she here on a school day? Is she staying here."

Gibbs sighed, knowing the scientist would ask him about Kate. "I don't know Abs. I didn't know she was with Tony until she showed up at the crime scene with him. If you want to know, ask Tony, or Kate." He said sternly and turned to walk out. "Call me when you have something!" He called back.

Abby frowned and watched him go. She was deep in thought about the reasons Kate was at NCIS with Tony on a school day. It didn't make sense to her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Th****anks for all the alerts! Though I would appreciate some reviews...Sorry for not updating, here's a couple chapters for you guys. Also, if you see any words that have a letter starred out, just ignore it. I originally wrote this for another site that doesn't allow swears or words like that.**

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Chapter 3-

Kate sat at Gibbs' desk with Tony leaning over it to talk to her in a little bit of privacy. "You're going home, now." He grumbled.

She rolled her eyes. "Why can't I stay here?"

"Because, you're a visitor, and visitors can't know about the cases." DiNozzo explained. "Besides, you're _grounded_, so you have to stay at home."

Sitting at her own desk, Ziva interjected. "She can probably have more fun there than here. There's internet, television, her dogs. Kate can't do anything here."

Kate nodded appreciatively towards Ziva. "Thank you Ziva."

"No helping, David!" Tony shouted angrily.

Both the woman and the young girl rolled their eyes at Tony. When Ziva turned back to her computer, Kate continued to talk to the angered field agent. "Ziva's right, it'll better if I st-." She was interrupted as a man with silver/gray hair walked into the bull pen. "Hey Gibbs." She smiled cheerfully.

Gibbs looked from Kate to DiNozzo and back. He opened his mouth slightly to say something but just sighed. "Background on our dead lieutenant."

DiNozzo huffed and moved to the main plasma in between McGee and Tony's desk. The rest of the team joined him. Including McGee, who was just sitting at his desk, watching the conversation between Tony and Kate with complete amusement. Kate, on the other hand, just stayed at Gibbs' desk.

McGee started off first. He clicked a button on the remote control of the plasma. The driver's license of the dead man showed up. "Lieutenant Brian Smithers. Despite being low on ranking, he's been a marine for fifteen years. According to his CO, he's loyal, quiet, doesn't act up. He even denies any invitations to go to bars or clubs. But Smithers is nice to all his fellow marines and has plenty of friends. He has been on liberty for the past week and was supposed to be deployed in a week."

After the computer tech was done, Ziva took over. She read from a folder in her hands. "Brian Smithers traveled often as a child, never in one spot more than three months."

"Parents traveled on business events. They often lived in hotels, maybe the occasional condo or apartment." Tony put in then was quiet for Ziva to continue.

"When he was thirteen, they all moved to a house near Shenandoah Park permanently when the parents Mary and Charles Smithers both got jobs as accountants. Smithers grew up with a lot of money but never exploited it. Instead, he dropped out of college to join the marines and serve his country. No criminal record and he never caused any trouble at any of his schools." When Ziva finished, she closed the folder and looked over at Gibbs.

"Oh come on. A rich kid grows up without acting out, impossible!" Tony exclaimed.

"Just because you grew up like that, doesn't mean everyone does." Kate put in.

DiNozzo whipped around to face her. "I didn't grow up with money." He demanded.

"Oh please. You said yourself that you grew up with money; with your mom being rich and your father getting money from everywhere."

"How do you know about my mother?"

Kate started laughing. "You get drunk so easily…and you blurt out the worst stuff possible."

McGee smiled and looked at Tony, who's eyes practically popped out of his head in surprise. Ziva put her hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud. Even Gibbs cracked a smile.

Tony gritted his teeth. "I swear…I'm gonna kill you so-." The team leader's hand connected with the back of Tony's head in a hard slap. "Sorry Boss." He muttered.

"The marine base, Smithers troop should be preparing to deploy." Gibbs said loudly.

"Interview them and find out what Smithers was like from their own experience." DiNozzo said immediately after.

The team all geared up and started heading to the entrance elevator. Tony turned around and called back to Kate. "Go to Abby's lab!" He pointed to the far elevator.

Kate grumbled something, rolled her eyes, and got up from Gibbs desk. She walked to the elevator and headed down to Abby's lab.


	4. Chapter 4

**The chapters will, I hope, be as long as this one. I do prefer them this way.**

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Chapter 4-

The team of four walked into a grassy clearing. There were pull-up bars, tires on the ground to run through, a boxing stage and a plain hand-to-hand combat stage. Then there was a grassy clearing for push-ups, sit-ups, etcetera. All of them split up to talk to Smithers' marine group.

Gibbs went to talk to two of them when they finished their boxing match. "Did you two know Lieutenant Smithers well?" He asked.

They both nodded. One of them actually answered though. "Yeah, Brian was cool. He was friends with everyone. He said even though he had a ton of money he never had many friends growing up. I don't know why." The man's voice was deep, as are many other marines.

The other man helped him out. "Smithers said he traveled a lot because of his parents. He liked to talk about his travels. He had a lot of adventures. It was one of the reasons everyone liked him; Brian appealed to everyone and always had some input."

Gibbs nodded. "He didn't have any enemies? No one that held a grudge against him?"

They shook their heads in unison. The first one that had answered, answered again. "No, like we said. Everyone liked Smithers." His voice was persistent, with a hint of annoyance in it.

"What even happened to him anyways?" The other man asked.

Gibbs just walked away, not answering the marine's last question.

Meanwhile, DiNozzo had gone off to the pull-up bars where another one of Smithers' group was working out. He walked right up to the man and called out. "Do you know Lieutenant Brian Smithers?" He asked.

The man let go out of the bar and looked at Tony. "Who are you to know?"

Tony took out his badge and ID and flashed it at the marine. "Special Agent DiNozzo." He said quickly then repeated his question. "Do you know Lieutenant Brian Smithers?"

The man wiped his hands on his pants then nodded. "Yeah, he was a good man. What happened to him?"

Like Gibbs, DiNozzo ignored the question. "What was he like?"

"Outgoing, but knew when to shut up. He was strong, helpful, practically a perfect child. Always knew how to cheer a guy up with one of his travelling stories." The guy smiled lightly, as if remembering a story.

"Everyone in your group think that?"

He nodded. "Oh yeah, Smithers was cool with everyone. Even the hot heads."

"Hot heads like you, Jimmy?" A woman from a few feet away called over. She walked over, having listened to their whole conversation.

Tony looked at her. "And you are…?"

"Another friend of Brian's, Smithers." She said simply.

"Well do you have anything to add?" DiNozzo smiled lightly.

"Not really, Jimmy said everything I knew about the guy. But I didn't talk to him that much. Those guys would know better." She pointed to two guys in the clearing. McGee was over there doing the interrogation.

McGee stood by the two marines. One was on the ground doing sit-ups while the other was standing on the guy's feet, keeping him stationary. "Can I ask you two some questions about Lieutenant Brian Smithers?" He asked bluntly.

The guy standing looked at the federal agent. "Sure. What do ya wanna know about him?"

"Did he talk much to others?" asked Tim.

He nodded. "Oh yeah, Smithers talked to everyone. Everyone liked him too. He always had fascinating stories."

"How'd you first meet him?"

"Bunk mates." The guy answered simply. "Him too." He nodded to the guy doing sit-ups.

The man doing sit-ups stopped to take a break and looked up at McGee. "Brian was a cool guy, never secretive, wasn't afraid to share anything with us. He's a d*mn good marine that's for sure. I trusted him with my life, and I'm sure I'm speaking for both of us," He motioned to his training partner. "When I say that Brian was our best friend, would never lie to us."

McGee was nodding a little the whole time the two were speaking. "Did any of his stories hint to any type of enemy or someone that would hold a grudge against him?"

"No way. His life was a fairy tale. Money, travels, the looks, and the girls." The standing one said then chuckled lightly. "He was one of the lucky ones."

Ziva went to the combat fighting arena to find some of Smithers' companions. She went from person to person and ended up with two men that said they knew Brian Smithers. One was shorter than the other, but definitely stronger. "How well did you know Smithers?" She asked.

"As well as anyone who listened to his stories. He told everyone his stories, regardless of how much they listened. They usually ended up listening though; Brian's stories were always interesting, or weird." The taller one said.

The shorter marine continued. "Yeah. He wasn't afraid to share about his personal life, mostly because it was so perfect. He got all the chicks." The guy looked her over. "Though I don't think many were as hot as you." He smiled a little, trying to put a little charm behind the statement.

Ziva just ignored him completely. "Was he any good as a marine?"

"Oh yeah, real good. Brian was real tough, never seemed to have a breaking point with pain, or anger." The taller marine answered.

The shorter marine was still somewhat checking out Ziva. He wasn't too subtle about it either.

David nodded and looked at the man that was checking her out. "Do you have anything to add?" She asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, you have a rockin-…oh, you mean about Brian? Not really…" He started to stutter with his words. "Uh, Brian never had problems it seemed. If someone was annoyed with him, it may be because they would be either jealous or annoyed because Smithers never seemed to shut up unless it was necessary."

Ziva nodded. "Thank you." She turned to walk away.

"No problem. You know where to find me if you need anything." The shorter guy said with a smile. The taller marine shoved him a few feet to the side and rolled his eyes at his friend.

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**Oh Ziva...don't kill the marine or you'll be out of a job. You can name the marine's on your own, except for Jimmy, he already has one. :)**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5-

Tony DiNozzo sat on the corner of his desk with a folder on the case in his hands. Ziva David stood by the main plasma while Jethro Gibbs and Tim McGee sat at their desks. "We all got the same response from all of Lieutenant Smithers' coworkers."

Ziva and McGee both nodded with the statement.

"And it was that Smithers had a perfect life personal and business." To anyone else, it would seem as though Tony was just stating the obvious. Which he was, but it helped everyone gather their thoughts together.

His last statement brought out nods from Ziva and McGee again.

Tony was now looking distressed. "So there was no reason to shoot him other than the fact that he had a perfect life?"

"But he had no known enemies." Ziva put in.

"And how do the trees fit into all of this?" McGee threw that question out there, stumping the three agents again.

Gibbs was watching his team calmly and decided to help them out a little. "Smithers may not have even been a target, just an accident." He said simply.

Ziva frowned slightly in thought. "Why would someone want to shoot a tree?"

"It was several trees actually." Tony quickly said. "Isn't Abby supposed to be doing a toxicology report on what was around each of the bullet holes too? They don't usually take this long."

McGee shrugged. "Well she does also have to deal with Kate. You must know by now that that must make everything take longer to do." He smiled slightly.

Tony just glared at him and shut the folder in his hands.

Just then, Gibbs' desk phone started ringing. He picked it up and immediately greeted the person with a simple, "Gibbs." There was rambling for a moment on the other end of the line, it sounded like some sort of argument between two girls. Finally, one person spoke to Gibbs, it was Kate.

"_Hey Gibbs! Abby needs you!_" She was practically shouting over Abby's music and very own voice. It kind of sounded like Abby was trying to shout in the phone, "No I don't!" but Kate made sure to block it out as much as she could.

Gibbs sighed a little and hung up. "Come on, to Abby's lab." He stood up and went to the far elevator, his team right behind him.

When they reached her lab, they instantly saw an argument between Abby and Kate going on. Gibbs drooped his shoulders a little and sighed. McGee and Ziva had to smile a little while Tony looked really annoyed.

"Why did you tell Gibbs to come down here? I don't have anything yet!" Abby shouted at Kate.

"You do have something! You have what's in the bullet holes!" Kate replied but wasn't shouting as loud as the scientist. She saw the team out of the corner of her eye and shut her mouth tight.

Abby too realized who was here and calmed down. "Uh…hi guys." She waved and smiled nervously.

Kate gave them a wide smile, acting like nothing had happened. When Gibbs just glared at her, she stammered an excuse to get away. "I'll just be…in the other room…" She turned and walked through a sliding door into the next room in the lab.

Abby watched the young girl go with slight envy of getting out of the awkward situation.

Gibbs walked forward to the goth. "Abs, what do ya got?" He asked, keeping his voice even and cool.

The other three members of the teams gathered around the large plasma screen.

"The toxicology report on the substances found in the bullet hole." She answered and moved to her computer. She hit a few keys on her keyboard and brought it up on both her computer and the plasma for everyone to see. "There's traces of several different chemicals, mostly things from cleaning products." Abby read from the computer then looked over at them. "Now, I don't know how many of you drank cleaning products as a kid."

Everyone but Gibbs shot Tony a look. He was watching Kate through the glass sliding door, not paying attention to their looks at all.

"But they are pretty deadly on their own; though it can be cured. If they are mixed together in the right way, there is no possible way to live. You are going to die within the next five minutes of injection." Abby explained. "Even if the bullet hadn't killed Smithers, the poison inject in his body did."

Gibbs turned away from the plasma and looked at the goth scientist. "Could the poison kill the trees?"

"Oh definitely, without a doubt; though it would take longer to kill the whole tree." Abby started to do calculations in her head. "Maybe about three or four hours longer."

Gibbs turned back to his team. "McGee, you're with me. We're going to the park to check out the trees." He started to walk out with McGee. "You," He pointed to Abby. "Find out where someone can mix the chemicals the right way."

Abby nodded and turned to her computer. She started typing.

Ziva noticed Tony was still staring at Kate so she snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Tony." She said sharply.

He turned his head to look at her. "What?" The look on his face showed that he had no idea what had happened since he entered Abby's lab.

David gave him a questioning look then shook her head slightly. "Have you decided on what you are going to do with Kate?" She asked.

DiNozzo nodded. "I'll drop her off at my place when I get the chance."

"What?" Abby exclaimed from behind her computer. "You can't get rid of Kate, she'll get bored at home."

"I know, that's why she's going there. She's grounded." Tony said sternly. "Why can't you people understand that?"

Ziva shrugged. "I am surprised you trust her alone at your apartment, where she can do whatever she wants."

Kate figured they were talking about her and walked out into the main lab. "Besides, I won't get bored either way. I have the dogs, computer, and television there; and you won't know if I stay there or not." She pointed out. "Here I can help solve cases and be a messenger and go everywhere. But I'll probably get bored eventually." She lied; she would never get bored at NCIS.

Tony knew that was a lie and was glad, because a bored Kate never ended well. "Fine, you can stay here." He tried to ignore the face's light up on all of the females there.

Suddenly, Abby's computer dinged. "Ooh, I got the chemical mixer place." She wrote down the address and handed it to Tony. "Good luck." She said with a smile.

Tony and Ziva walked out of the lab and to the elevator to go to the chemical mixer.

Kate watched them go with a devious smile, happy she won the argument with Tony.

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**Chapters 6, 7, and 8 will be up by Monday I hope. If not, then I'll put them up Tuesday, along with chapter 9 and 10. Either way, they will all be written and up by Tuesday night. Lotta chapters, huh?**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you to whoever brought the mistake of this chapter to my attention. Here is the real chapter 6. I'm pretty sure I messed up on Personal Layers' chapter 6 too...I'll try not to mess up on Gone for the Summer's Chapter 6. This isn't a very important chapter anyway.**

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A black Dodge Charger sped down the road. Gibbs sat in the driver's seat while McGee sat in the passenger's. Gibbs' phone started ringing so he picked it up and answered, "Yeah?"

Director Leon Vance's voice came through the other end. "Gibbs, what's going on with your case?"

"Director, why do you need to know?" Gibbs replied calmly.

"I'm guessing you haven't seen the news then." Vance's voice was tinted with annoyance.

"No, I've been working the case, not watching the news."

"Well ZNN just put out a story on a mass grove of trees falling over, dead. Young trees to. They noticed that all the dead trees have nine millimeter holes in each of them." The director was watching the news channel as he retold the facts to Gibbs.

The car arrived at Shenandoah Park and the two agents got out of the car; Gibbs was still on the phone. "Yeah, they were going to eventually. The trees were shot with a poison bullet. Same thing that killed the marine."

Vance turned the wall mounted television off and started to think. "Figure it out, before more things are shot." He hung immediately after that statement.

Gibbs let out a deep breath and put his phone away. He and McGee walked into the park and to the grove of trees that had fallen so far. He heard a faint creaking that he knew all too well; cracking wood. Gibbs looked around to find the tree that was about to fall.

McGee had walked over to one of the trees that had a bullet hole in it. "This one hasn't fallen yet." He called over to Gibbs.

The team leader looked at the tree; it seemed to be the only one liable to fall at the moment. "McGee! Get out of the way! It's about to fall now."

With the sudden realization on the danger he was in, Tim started to run, but just ended up jumping away from the tree. There was a loud crack and the once standing tree was on the ground a moment later.

Gibbs covered his head in protection from the falling branches. When it was all over, he looked around for his agent. "McGee!" He shouted.

The was a moment of silence, making Gibbs think the worst about what happened to McGee, when a humanlike form rose up from the ground. It was Tim.

"I'm alright Boss!" McGee shouted back. "Just hit by a few twigs."

Gibbs nodded and walked over to McGee. "Look around for anything. I don't think Ziva went through the trash."

The younger agent nodded and walked off to find anything. Gibbs crouched by the newly fallen tree and looked at the bullet hole.

After a while of searching the trash and looking at the bullet holes in the trees, McGee called over his boss. "Found something!" He was holding something in his hand

Gibbs walked over and looked at the agent's hand. In it, were little silver or tin chunks of metal. It looked kind of like a bullet, but it was rounded on both ends instead of cone-like on one end. Each one was nine millimeters in diameter. "Bag 'em, Abby can do ballistics on them. Is this the last the last trash can?"

McGee nodded to both statements and put the little metal pieces in an evidence bag. "Yeah, that's all of them."

"Alright, let's head back then." Gibbs headed towards the car.


	7. Chapter 7

**Well I told you I'd put up chapter 7, though it is 1:25 am where I am...but either way, it's up. Happy Fourth of July to those that live in America, to the others, no new chapters tomorrow, sorry.**

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Chapter 7-

DiNozzo and David walked through a pretty shotty hallway. "For an advanced chemical mixer company, this building sucks." Tony just had to put in.

"They are probably just starting off." Ziva suggested. "Which would make sense for someone to come to them, so they wouldn't be detected."

Tony nodded. "Fair enough." He opened the door to a room filled with test tubes and beakers filled with different liquids. There were several things that looked like plain old baking mixers. One corner was filled with several high-tech computers. "Ooh, but this room is fancy." DiNozzo smiled a little.

A middle-aged man with short black hair walked up to them. "Can I help you?" He asked, the look on his face showed he was clearly annoyed with them just walking in.

Tony looked the man over then took out his ID and badge. "Yes you can. Special Agents DiNozzo," He motioned to himself, "David."

"Yes, you can." Ziva answered. "We need to have a look at your customer records."

"Okay…Follow me." The man walked over to the computers. "Why do you need to see them?" He asked as he logged onto one of them.

"That's classified snoopy. What's your name anyway?" Tony glared at the guy a little.

"Richard, Richard Drate." The guy sighed a little.

"Well, Richard, what goes on in this little lab of yours?" DiNozzo asked, looking around the place.

"Chemistry." Drate answered simply.

Tony frowned in disgust. "Between who? You're the only one here."

Richard glared at the agent, almost a death glare. "I mix different chemicals together for experiments. I'm trying to find easy cures to regular diseases."

"Yeah, it's called the doctor." Tony smirked at him.

Ziva rolled her eyes. "Can you just get the customer records?"

Drate nodded and kept typing on his computer. "My last customer was five months ago." He said. "They just wanted to buy some chemicals from me since they figured I wasn't using them." There was bitter in his voice. "That's it."

David narrowed her eyes as she looked at the computer. She walked closer but Richard stood in her way. "May I see them?" Her voice was tinted with menace and she seemed to get angrier each second that the man didn't move.

"I would move if I were you." Tony said seriously. He was growing suspicious of why Drate wouldn't let them see it.

Richard started to look nervous and kept glancing back and forth between the two agents. "I-I told you e-everything. Th-there's no p-point." He stuttered.

"We just want to double check. It should be no problem." Tony said. Once Tony finished his statement, Drate took off for the door. DiNozzo took chase after him, easily catching up before the mixer could open the door. "Now doing that just makes you seem guilty." The agent commented whilst roughly pulling Richard's arms behind his back and handcuffing him.

Ziva had stayed back to check the customer records. She walked over to the two men. "The records show he had another customer a few weeks ago that needed a careful mix of several different cleaning products."

"I can explain!" Drate demanded.

Tony pulled Drate's arm a little higher to register a little bit of pain for him to be quiet. "I'm sure you can; but not to us." He pushed Richard out the door and headed for the exit, Ziva in front to ensure that the handcuffed man didn't run off too easily if he got loose.


	8. Chapter 8

**I wrote this in 30 minutes, quickest chapter I've ever written...**

* * *

Chapter 8-

Gibbs sat in the interrogation room, in the chair closest to the one way mirror with a folder in front of him. Opposite him sat Richard Drate. On the other side of the glass were Tony, Ziva, and McGee, watching the interrogation. Drate was sweating fiercely, and it was showing through his shirt in every way possible.

"That is disgusting." Tony commented on Drate's condition whilst wrinkling his nose in disgust.

Gibbs, on the other hand, was absolutely calm. "Why'd you run?"

Richard started shaking a little. "I'm innocent, I swear."

"Then why'd you run?" Gibbs just repeated his question, still calm.

Tony chuckled a little from behind the glass. "Look at this guy, shaking and sweating. He totally did it."

"If he did it, why would he put himself down as a customer?" Ziva countered.

Tony frowned. "Well, he definitely made the poison."

"Doesn't mean he did anything illegal." McGee then countered. "He probably had no idea why he was making it and didn't ask questions." He smiled smugly at his now frustrated co-worker.

"I ran because…because you guys scared me. I thought your agents would get mad and arrest me for what I do." Drate choked out. Calling him nervous would be an understatement.

"We don't care what you do." Gibbs snapped at him. "But lying didn't help. Why'd you lie?" He was shouting now.

The chemical mixer's eyes widened with fright and he started stuttering out his answer. "I-I didn't have m-much informa-information on the p-person besides…besides what they wanted mixed. And they asked me not to tell anyone what I was doing for them."

"_They?_" Gibbs glared at him.

"Yes! There were two of them. I only saw the guy but I knew someone was out in the hallway waiting."

The silver-haired man pulled out a picture from the folder. It was the marine. "Was the guy him?" He asked.

Drate shook his head. "N-no, I've never seen that guy in my life."

"Could he be the person in the hallway?"

Again, Drate shook his head. "No way, the person wasn't that big. But if you give me some time and a chance to go back to my lab, I can get the security tapes. I have a camera in my lab and another aimed at the outer door to see anyone who comes in."

Gibbs thought for a moment then eventually nodded. "You have five hours to get me the tapes and an agent will escort you."

Richard nodded back. "O-of c-course."

From behind the glass, both Ziva and McGee were looking at Tony with a smug smile. "That's not a confession." Ziva smirked.

Tony frowned, staring at Drate. "I still don't trust him."

* * *

**Are you guys enjoying the shorter chapters? **


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9-

With the interrogation over and Drate gone with another agent outside the team to go to his lab, the team gathered back in the bullpen. Kate was there too, sitting at DiNozzo's desk and playing songs on her IPod through her headphones. One headphone was in while the other was out, as she was listening to the team's conversation about the case.

Ziva was sitting at her desk while Tony was sitting on the low cabinet behind Ziva's desk. McGee was sitting at his desk. Gibbs was off on a coffee run to think about the case on his own.

The team was having another discussion on the facts of the case and where it is going. Tony, being the one who talks the most, was saying the facts. "So the chemical mixing dude was a bust. He won't give us anything but a sweaty floor." He was still upset about the man not confessing to the murder.

"He's getting us the mystery customer though." McGee put in.

DiNozzo rolled his eyes. "That just means we'll have to find them."

McGee gave Tony a look that just said 'Really? That's what you do every day so shut up.'

Ziva looked from Tony to McGee and couldn't help but roll her eyes and look over at Kate.

Kate smiled at her. "So you've worked here how long?" She smirked a little.

"Hey!" Tony exclaimed to Kate. "No eavesdropping; you're lucky I let you come up here."

David looked to Tony. "Why'd you let her up here anyways?"

DiNozzo grumbled a little then muttered. "Abby got the trees from the park and was cutting them up to do forensics on them."

Ziva looked at Kate, her face asking why that mattered at all.

Kate responded simply. "He doesn't trust me around anything sharp, especially saws."

Ziva nodded, understanding it all now.

"Anyways," Tony started. "Until we get the security tapes, we got nothing."

Everyone nodded, including Kate. McGee said, "Pretty much." To put some audio out in the consensus.

"Great." DiNozzo muttered when his phone started going off.

Immediately, Kate picked it up. "Hel- Oh, hey Abby. What's up?" She started nodding her head to the frantic but cheerful talking of the forensic scientist. She was about to say something in return, but Tony came over first and took the phone from her with a glare, which earned a counter glare from the young girl.

"Abs, what's up?" Tony said into the phone

"_I got something with the little metal chunks!_" Abby called through the phone, in the background was the sound of an electric saw against a tree trunk.

DiNozzo nodded. "Alright, we'll be right down."

"_Okay! Kate can co-_." Tony hung up before Abby could finish the sentence then called out. "Garage, let's go." He looked at Kate. "You too, come on."

Kate smiled a little and stood up from the chair. She walked in front of Tony to the elevator.

"Faster." Tony muttered and pushed the back of Kate's head lightly forward.

She swatted his hand away. "Don't touch me." Kate frowned.

* * *

**I haven't exactly figured out why Tony was so upset about Drate, but it's okay, because it won't come back.**


	10. Chapter 10

**I think I'm gonna stick with this screen name, sorry if it confused you with all the changing.**

* * *

Chapter 10-

The three agents and Kate exited the elevator and walked into the garage. On the left was the evidence garage. Spread across most of the garage was the fallen trees from the park. Of course, since there isn't enough room for the whole tree, all that was there was the section with the bullet hole and a good ten meters above and below it.

Kate marveled the sight. "Woah…awesome hurdles." She smiled a little.

Tony looked at Kate and rolled his eyes a little. He sighed and looked around. Spotting Abby and Gibbs, who must've gotten a similar call, in the corner with a few computers, DiNozzo walked over. McGee and Ziva followed the senior field agent while Kate walked over to the tree closest to the group and sat down on it.

Once the group was gathered around the computer Abby was at, she started talking, mostly to Gibbs though. "I analyzed the metal material that you and McGee brought in and found that is a pure element."

Tony looked at the computer. "Let me guess, silver? The killers could be werewolf hunters." He smiled a little but stopped talking and smiling when he got a Gibbs from glare.

Abby brought up a periodic table then closed in on a specific element. "No, it's Iron." She showed everyone then started typing again. "And, these little metal things were the bullets."

"But all of them are rounded on either end." Ziva pointed out, her confusion plain on her face.

"Yeah, it's weird. But that's when I figured it out." Abby brought up a digitalized picture of the rounded metal chunks. "On the edges of one rounded side of each bullet was a thin layer of tin." She pointed to where she was talking about. "If I do the calculations right…" The picture started changing. The edge where the tin layer was started growing out into a sharp point. In the final picture, it looked like a miniature underground mining drill without the wheels. "We have a seriously deadly bullet." Abby smiled a little.

"What about the poison?" McGee asked.

Ziva then asked, "And why did the tip disintegrate?"

"Oh yeah, the poison was inside the tip. It was released through the little slits in the screwy part of the point." Abby explained. "The poison spilled out as the bullet is put in movement, so if you want it to be effective, then it was to be a point blank shot. Once the tip hit something, it would shoot through, but also fall to pieces. The momentum kept it going."

Gibbs, who had been silent until now, asked. "Was Lieutenant Smithers shot point blank?"

The scientist shook her head. "No, he didn't have much poison in him."

"What gun could shoot these bullets?" Tony asked.

"Any nine millimeter gun." Abby said with a little bit of a frown. "But I'm looking for places where you can buy the iron and tin." There was a small ding that came from the computer. "And here they are. There are two places; The Metallic Representatives and Brannode and Co." Abby let them see the address.

"DiNozzo, David, go to Brannode. McGee, with me; we're going to the other one." Gibbs ordered and walked to the elevator. McGee was right behind him.

Tony nodded and turned around to face Kate. She smiled at him. "Bye."

He rolled his eyes. "Alright, first off, we need to clear up something. One, you are somewhat grounded, which means no running around the building randomly."

"I don't do that anyways." Kate retorted.

Tony glared at her, telling her not to talk until he was done. "Just stay by Abby's side. You are to do whatever she says when she says it and are not allowed to touch any case files."

"That it? I do that already."

"No, that's not it so be quiet." DiNozzo said with a bit of a sneer.

Abby and Ziva were watching them both with amusement lighting up their eyes.

Tony turned to Abby. "Abs, I need you to keep her working, if you run out of work for her, give her to Ducky so she can do what he says. And tell him the same thing I'm telling you now, okay?"

Abby nodded. "Of course." She smiled at him.

Tony looked at Kate then at Abby then back to Kate. "Alright. Come on Ziva." He turned around and walked to the elevator.

Kate waved at Ziva as she walked away. "Have fun." She called after them.

~~~~At the Metallic Representatives~~~~

Gibbs and McGee walked through the glass doors of the metal seller into a small room that led to the next doors of the actual building. Gibbs was in front of the other agent, per usual, and reached out to grab the first door they reached it.

Inside the next room was the main lobby. It was a simple place, hardwood flooring with a rug in the middle and a plain white desk on the side of the room opposite the door. There were a few computers on the desk for several receptionists to work at. At the moment, there was only one woman at one of the computers though. "How may I help you?" She asked as Gibbs walked up to her.

He took out his badge and ID to show her. "Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS. I need to know who has bought any amounts of silver and tin in the past two months."

The woman nodded and started to type on her keyboard. "A man…Waltone, Chris, he bought large quantities of pure elements several times in the past month."

Gibbs nodded when she finished talking. His phone started ringing so he picked it up. "Gibbs."

The voice that came through was Tony's. "_Hey Boss, we got nothing at Bannode._"

"Alright, get back to the base." Gibbs ordered them.

"_On it, Boss._" Tony hung up.

* * *

**I'm happy with this chapter, how about you guys?**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11-

The team sat at their desks in the squad room. McGee was typing away at his computer. Gibbs, Tony, and Ziva were just sitting there, bored and waiting for McGee to say something. They all looked up when he spoke, "I found Waltone's address." He announced. "77 Pleasant Street, Richmond Virginia."

The other three agents stood and geared up. "Good job, McGee." Said Gibbs. "Stay here and do a background check.

McGee nodded and turned back to his computer.

Gibbs walked out with Tony and Ziva behind him.

~~~~Waltone's house~~~~

The NCIS car stopped outside on the street a house down from 77 Pleasant Street. Gibbs, DiNozzo, and David stepped out of the car and walked towards the house. It was a simple white house, one story and small backyard but a large front yard.

Gibbs looked at the house then handed out quick orders. "DiNozzo, go to the back."

With a simple nod, Tony, with his gun now drawn, moved to the backyard to search that quickly.

Ziva looked over at the right side, where the parking lot was. "No car, may not be home." She noted out loud.

Gibbs didn't say anything, just started moving towards the front door. Ziva followed behind him. When they reached the door, Gibbs stood on the left side to open it while Ziva went to the left. As soon as they heard, "_In position Boss._" From DiNozzo over their ear pieces, Gibbs opened the door and let agent David in first.

The two went in with their guns drawn. They stormed through the living room, checking any closets, shouting, "Clear!" with each one.

DiNozzo came in through the kitchen and then searched the dining room. He shouted the same when he was done.

Ziva walked down a hallway to the bedroom and opened the door. "In here!" She shouted out and was soon joined by the two other agents there.

In the room, on the bed, was a young man, no more than twenty-eight. He was lying on his back, in a position that looked like he had just woken up. There were several stab wounds all over his chest and stomach. Blood pooled everywhere, on his shirt, all over the bed, and even some puddles on the ground; most of the blood was dry though. On the floor a few feet from the door lay a cell phone, and an expensive one at that.

"Do you think that is Waltone?" David asked.

"Oh I hope not." Gibbs muttered.

* * *

**Well Chapter 10 was long, this one...not so much. I'm still proud of it though. This is the shortest chapter so far, and will probably always be.**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12-

The team was now back in Abby's lab. McGee and Abby were at the desk in the middle of the room. Tony, Ziva, and Gibbs were standing to the left of the desk, staring at the plasma. The plasma had flashing screens, as it was mirroring the computer screen McGee was working at.

The computer savvy agent was typing at the keyboard in front of him quickly, explaining what he was doing whilst he did it. "I pulled up the call log on the phone you guys found near the dead man." The plasma screen showed a long list of numbers and names. "All the calls made were from the same three people. According to the names for them, their names are Maria Ekella, Jose Tullua, and Pablo Thermina."

Gibbs nodded. "Anything in the actual phone?" He asked.

"Yeah," McGee replied quickly, "I went through the rest of the phone. It didn't take long. The only things on it are Tetris extreme, a calendar to keep track of different dates, and a short video." He started typing again and brought up the calendar. "There was nothing on Tetris so I went through the calendar and found that there are several days of each week labeled "Warehouse meeting". I went back a month and found the address to the warehouse, assuming they used the same one." He explained.

Gibbs turned a bit to look at McGee. "What was the video of?"

Tim nodded and started typing yet again. He brought up the video and played it. It was only a few seconds long, but it showed someone holding a bullet with an extremely sharp tip and rounded bottom half. It looked like a mini underground mining drill without the wheels, and the animated one Abby had constructed. When it was over, McGee spoke up. "Doesn't help much, only proves that Abby was right about the looks of the bullets."

Abby finally started speaking. "When I dusted the phone for prints, I found several pairs. Most of them are on the screen, which is fairly obvious considering it's a touch screen phone…" She trailed off as she looked over at Gibbs, who was staring at her like 'Just get on with it'. So she nodded and got back on track. "I ran them through AFIS, didn't get any hits and I'm running them through Interpol now, but it's taking a while."

"How long?" Gibbs asked simply.

"An hour, maybe two. Depends." The scientist shrugged.

"Hey Boss." McGee called out. "I was just double checking the calendar and noticed there's a meeting at the warehouse in an hour."

"Let's go." Gibbs barked out and headed to the door, his three agents right behind him.

~~~~The warehouse~~~~

The MCRT drove up in two cars to an abandoned old warehouse. They stopped on the side and got out of the cars. Immediately, voices could be heard from inside. All the voices were calm; it sounded like three men and a women.

Gibbs looked at Tony and Ziva and nodded to the back, indicating them to go around. Both of them nodded, drew their guns out, and starting slowly running away. The team leader then looked to McGee and motioned for him to follow. He started moving slowly to the wide open garage door of the warehouse.

The voices had now stopped, except for one. It was whispering. "Did you hear that? Sounded like a car door."

Gibbs and McGee pressed up against the warehouse wall outside.

Ziva's voice went through their earpieces. "All set." She said simply. DiNozzo and David were standing on either side of the back door of the warehouse.

"Go." Gibbs muttered then shot forward and shouted, "Freeze!" as he pointed his gun at the four people. McGee did the same thing behind his team leader, but didn't say anything.

The other two agents burst through the back with their guns aimed also at the four people, but at their backs instead, as they all face Gibbs and McGee.

Two of the men were on the sides of the biggest guy, who had his arm wrapped tightly around the woman and a pistol pointed at her temple. "Leave or I shoot!" He shouted.

"Put the weapon down!" Tony shouted.

The man looked around at all the agents and slowly lowered the gun, figuring he probably wouldn't be shot that way. He dropped it to the ground and let the woman go then put his hands up, along with the other two guys.

Ziva went forward and kicked the gun away from the warehouse people.

Each agent besides Gibbs handcuffed a man. Gibbs stood by the woman. "You alright?" He asked.

She nodded silently.

He nodded back. "Put them in the car, bring them back to the yard." He ordered his team.

* * *

**So if you didn't know this already, Cote de Pablo's real name is Maria Jose de Pablo(with accents, I'm just too lazy right now) and if you remember from a few minutes of reading ago, those are the names of the people. Yes, I meant that to happen.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Okay, I've been watching these Youtube videos about NCIS lately and often I've seen a clip where Ziva is dancing in front of Tony's desk(and he is sitting there too) and I really want to know where that's from. Any ideas? I also want to know the episode where McGee runs through a car wash(in the opening credits). You guys can just answer, if you know, in a review. An actual review along with it would make me happier, but I don't really care much. Thank you for your time, now onto reading.**

* * *

Chapter 13-

Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo sat in an interrogation room across from the biggest of the group, who had held a gun to the woman's head. He asked a simple question, "What were you four doing in the warehouse midafternoon?"

The guy was calm and answered just as calm. "It was a guy's night out, that it, okay?"

"Guys night out doesn't usually have girls in it, now does it?" Tony responded with a small smile.

He looked around, now looking irritated. "She barged in on us, alright? She's married to one of our friends and wanted to know where he was."

"Who's your little married friend?" DiNozzo asked.

"Chris Waltone."

The agent nodded. "Okay, so why were you a gun to the woman's head?"

Special Agent Ziva David sat in another interrogation room with the smallest of the men. He was probably a newbie, considering how he was looking around the room constantly, nervously.

This NCIS agent was out to find the same information as Tony. "What were the four of you doing in that warehouse, Jose?" How she got the name is yet to be discovered.

He glanced at her. "How do you know my name?" Jose asked instantly.

Ziva shrugged. "You just said it was your name." She said simply. "Now answer my question."

The guy took a deep breath, he looked like he was about to burst out in tears or sweat. Somewhere in her mind, Ziva was hoping neither. "Just a little craft project, building simple things like boxes and crates for shipping some stuff."

"Shipping what exactly?"

Jose hesitated to answer then finally spoke up. "Stuff back to our families, they need it."

Ziva could tell it was a lie, so she just gave him a disbelieving look and sat back in her chair.

In one last interrogation room sat McGee and the other side 'monkey' as DiNozzo would call them. The guy was being difficult and Tim didn't know what to do about it, so he just kept repeating his questions.

"All I want to know is what was going on inside the warehouse." Agent McGee asked.

The guy sat still in the chair with his arms folded in front of him, showing his determination to be quiet. He was obviously well trained. "I'm not saying nothing unless I get a lawyer."

McGee held back a sigh. "We already called in to get you a lawyer, but I doubt you'll get anything good if you don't cooperate." The threat was weak, and did nothing to the guy.

"Not saying anything." He repeated and leaned back in his chair a little.

McGee looked around, trying to think of how to get the guy to talk.

Gibbs sat in the bright orange interrogation room with the captive woman. He poured some water from the bubbler on the counter and handed the glass to her. "Here." He said softly.

The woman acknowledged his actions with a simple nod. She was staring at the table and looked like she was crying. "Thank you."

Gibbs sat down in one of the chairs and watched her, waiting for her to be ready to talk. Earlier, he had gotten a call from Abby about the fingerprints found on the phone. Apparently, they belonged to one Maria Ekella, who was the woman sitting in front of the silver haired team leader.

Maria sat up straighter and took a sip of the water then cleared her throat.

Gibbs took that as a sign to start talking. "Do you know Chris Waltone?" He asked gently.

She nodded. "He's my…fiancé." She choked out then added. "Well he was."

"You know he is dead?" Gibbs barely hid his shock.

Ekella nodded and looked up at Gibbs like it was obvious. "Yes, I found him lying on the bed, bleeding out. He saw me and kept asking for his phone. It was on the floor by the bedroom door. He died before I got it to him so I looked through it to figure out why he wanted it so bad. I looked through it and saw he had a meeting today at some warehouse so I went to figure out what it was about." She took a deep, shaky breath. "He's been disappearing during the afternoon for about a month now. I was curious if it was the same thing."

The agent nodded. "What did you find out when you got there."

"Nothing." She answered simply. "I got there only a few minutes before you…and you know what happened after that." Maria looked down at the table as her body shook a little with soon-to-come sobs.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14-

The four agents sat at their desks in the bull pen, all of them turned to watch the main plasma in between Tony and Tim. The screen was split into two sections or two different buildings. On one side was the hallway/entrance way to the chemical mixer, the other side was the lobby of The Metallic Representatives.

McGee, who was controlling the videos, paused it at one point. It showed the dead guy, who Ducky confirmed as Chris Waltone, and a woman, Maria Ekella.

When Tony noticed who both of them where, he commented. "Someone lied."

"She must have. I mean she was at _both_ of the companies at the time when Waltone bought them." Ziva said.

"She might not even be engaged to Waltone; for all we know she could have killed him." McGee put in with a light shrug.

"So why is she lying about everything?" Tony asked out to anyone that listened to him.

McGee answered almost immediately with his smart mind. "If she told us that she knew nothing of what they were doing, and if we found out a crime the men were doing, then she wouldn't get charged for anything."

DiNozzo nodded slowly at the answer, excepting it. "Is there any crime we can charge them anyway? Did we even find any more bullets?"

"The agents that surveyed the scene found dozens of crates that are full of the bullets that were in the video on the cell phone." Ziva reported. "There was also a crate of guns. The one that the man had held to Maria's head was recently fired in the past twenty four hours. It was most likely the gun that shot Lieutenant Smithers in the back."

"So they're mass tree murderers." Tony said and smiled faintly at his pathetic joke. The rest of the team rolled their eyes.

* * *

**Such a short chapter, and it's mostly useless. Oh well, tomorrow comes up the last two chapters**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15-

Ziva was back in the interrogation room with Jose, the newbie. Along with her was Gibbs, who had taken his usual seat closest to the mirror.

"You said," Gibbs started. "That the reason you and your friends were in that warehouse were because you were having a little craft project." It came out as half a question and half a statement.

Jose nodded. "Yeah. It was nothing."

Gibss nodded a little, it was obvious he didn't believe the guy. "Yeah, from what we found there," He pulled out a picture of one of the crates, which was full of the bullets. "Your so-called 'craft project' was much more than…nothing." He shrugged.

Jose seemed to get a little bit more worried, though it was hard to tell, considering how worried he looked already.

"How was Waltone involved?" Ziva asked.

Immediately after she finished that sentence, Gibbs asked, "Why the meetings?"

David then asked. "Why are you guys creating heavy duty bullets?"

Jose put his hands up defensively. "Woah, woah, slow down." He said, calm for once. He glanced over at Ziva. "Now why don't you repeat your question tu belleza exotica? Slowly this time though." Jose smiled at her.

Ziva didn't respond, just glared at him.

Gibbs held back a frustrated sigh. "Why were you guys making the bullets?" He asked; determination behind his voice, it was almost threatening.

Jose gulped when he heard Gibbs' tone. "Alright. Yeah, it was more than a small craft project."

Gibbs gave him a look to continue, and say everything.

Jose looked at Ziva to answer her first question. "Waltone supplied us with anything we needed. The materials for the bullets, the poison, even the food. He had contacts everywhere and never seemed to get into trouble." He took a deep breath and averted his gaze to the table. "Me and Pablo killed him when he got us everything. He was weak, would break easily, and we didn't need him anymore."

Ziva chuckled lightly to herself at the irony of that sentence.

"Why were you making the bullets?" Gibbs asked.

"To send back to our families so they could defend themselves against attacks." Jose said honestly, and Gibbs believed him.

"Why did you kill that marine?" Ziva asked.

"It was an accident!" He shouted, surprising both the agents. Jose looked from one to the other then shrunk down and said more quietly. "It was an accident, I swear. I was just shooting a few trees when the bullet hit him too. I saw him drop, threw away the bullet pieces and ran, didn't look back. He wasn't supposed to die."

"Murder either way." Ziva said calmly.

Gibbs watched Jose. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, that little b*tch, Maria." He spat her name. "She helped Waltone get everything and was just in it for the money."

"The fiancé?" David said questioningly.

Jose scoffed. "Fiance…I'd like to meet one person that actually can spend more than a minute with her. Being Waltone's fiancé is an absolute bluff. Just so she wouldn't get caught."

"Sounds like the perfect wife." Gibbs smirked.

Tony walked through the glass automatic slide doors of autopsy. He looked to the left, where Ducky's desk sat. Sitting in the desk chair was the elder medical examiner while a young girl, no more than fifteen sat in a chair right next to it.

The young girl laughed at one of Ducky's comments then looked over at Tony. She smiled at him.

"Kate, come on, time to go home." DiNozzo ordered her.

Kate nodded and stood up. She walked past Tony and stood outside by the elevator to wait for him.

"Sorry about any troubles Ducky." DiNozzo said once Kate was out of the room.

"Oh it was no trouble at all. She was very helpful." Doctor Mallard said with a smile. "Kate helped me clean most everything down here." Tony gave him a questioning look, which made the M.E. continue. "She's very interesting, has great stories to tell. But there's one thing that bothers me about her."

"And what's that?" The agent asked.

"The only reason she would ever act mean to anyone is because she feels that is the only way to relieve some pain from her own life." Ducky explained.

"So she is mean to relieve some of her own pain?" Tony summarized.

The medical examiner nodded. "It's very common."

"I know…but why is she in pain?"

"How is she doing in school?"

Tony didn't say anything, just nodded, understanding it now. "Thanks Duck." He said then walked out to meet Kate at the elevator and go to the squad room.

* * *

**Aw, emotional moment for Tony and Kate. More or less. And yes, Jose did confess everything and to murder. They shall all be arrested, including the nameless guy and Maria. Last chapter next! Will be up tonight.**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16-

For the last time that day, the whole team, and Kate, were gathered in the squad room. Each of them were at their desks while Kate was in a chair by Ziva's.

Other agents had arrested the four people after Jose convinced Gibbs that the other three had been part of the murder too.

Now the team was just wrapping up the case with reports and such. Gibbs had given them the order to leave once they had finished. McGee soon finished and packed up his stuff. With a quiet, "See ya tomorrow." And nod to Kate (almost as if he was giving her luck), the young agent headed to the elevators and left.

Ziva, who had finished about a half hour earlier, was amusing Kate with the computer. Or rather, Kate was amusing Ziva by showing her You tube videos. The female agent was astounded by them, yet found them very funny.

Tony was sitting at his desk, trying to block out the girls incessant giggling from the desk across from him. He finally finished about thirty minutes later and started talking. "You know, we could have gone home so much earlier if you two would shut up." He snapped, but wasn't absolutely angry.

Both of them just glanced at him then played him no heed and went back to the computer.

DiNozzo sighed but kept talking. "You wanna watch a movie when we go home, Kate?" He asked.

"Maybe." Kate answered quickly, not taking her eyes from Ziva's computer screen. "What one now?"

Tony shrugged. "Any preference."

The girl smiled a little and looked at the male agent. "We can watch a little kids Disney movie, those can be funny."

"No they can't." He answered almost immediately.

"There seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere." Kate said in a slightly deep tone of voice.

Tony glared at her.

"I'm surrounded by idiots." Her voice was still deep as she rubbed her temples dramatically. "Except Ziva, Gibbs, Abby, and McGee." She said in her regular voice and smirked at DiNozzo.

"Haha, you are so funny." He muttered. "I was thinking something that went along with the movie we saw last week."

"The Avengers? Why?"

Tony shrugged. "Figured you should know their background and only the Hulk and Iron Man movies that I have. But there's two Iron Man movies, if you care which we watch. Y'know, Robert Downey Jr. is a very good actor. He's in a lot too. Iron Man, obviously, Tropic Thunder…"

Kate and Ziva zoned him out and turned back to the computer. When they could barely hear the videos over Tony's voice, Kate stopped playing them. Now Tony had started talking about the movie Tropic Thunder and the plot of it.

"How long will he go on?" Kate whispered to David.

"Forever if he doesn't realize that we're not listening." The agent rolled her eyes.

Kate laughed silently. "So if we just leave him here he might not notice?" The amused nod prompted another question. "Wanna go out to eat then?"

Ziva shrugged and stood up to gather her stuff. "Why not?"

Kate smiled and got up too. "Where to?" She asked.

"Hmm…" Ziva said out of thought. She started walking towards the entrance elevator, the young girl following suit. "Italian sound nice?" She suggested as they got to the metal box and the doors opened.

Kate nodded in agreement.

Tony, somehow hearing the word Italian, looked up and over at them. "Hey, wait!" He called after them and quickly grabbed his stuff, rushing after them.

Call it fate for Kate and Ziva, but the doors shut right in front of Tony's face, triggering a laugh from both of them.

Tony, on the other hand, flew his hands up in exasperation. He banged his fist against the doors in annoyance.

* * *

**And a fun little ending to a fun little story. Review if you want me to make another story, because I'm debating over if I should make another. It will be with Kate. So give me ideas if you got any, because I am blank. Wow...it took me the exact same amount of time to complete Personal Layers, as it did Craft Projects. Cool. **

**By the way, I will most likely make a little drabble with Tony and Kate that I thought of awhile ago. But it won't be up for at least four weeks.**


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